How is the following situation explainable?

I was searching without success for a bunch of keys I had lost in the lawn. At once one of my Pits came to me with the bunch in her mouth. I had at that time never taught her anything like retrieve. I had only taught within the canil to touch certain objects I was staring at. ( Not keys).

After this incident I dropped during walks deliberately different objects behind me - seemingly by random - in order to know if it had perhaps been just accidental But she noticed this every time, picked the item up and brought it to me.

Is it possible that she was somehow connecting my staring at objects during training sessions and my searching in the garden? Are dogs able to draw conclusions? Do they have a capacity of something like analytical thinking?

 Quote: Christina Stockinger

How is the following situation explainable?

I was searching without success for a bunch of keys I had lost in the lawn. At once one of my Pits came to me with the bunch in her mouth. I had at that time never taught her anything like retrieve. I had only taught within the canil to touch certain objects I was staring at. ( Not keys).

After this incident I dropped during walks deliberately different objects behind me - seemingly by random - in order to know if it had perhaps been just accidental But she noticed this every time, picked the item up and brought it to me.

Is it possible that she was somehow connecting my staring at objects during training sessions and my searching in the garden? Are dogs able to draw conclusions? Do they have a capacity of something like analytical thinking?

A) What a GREAT dog

B) My Akita would do that when I misplaced my glasses & couldn't SEE well enough to find them myself, LOL...

C) (Unrelated) I never had to call my Borzoi aloud to come from another room -- All I had to do was mentally think his name only in my head & he would arrive at my side momentarily...

Canids are one of the few species besides humans that pay attention to WHERE their counterparts POINT or even just Direct their Eyes -- IMHO, the Seek-Back routine (or an un-asked-for retrieve to handler) is a NATURAL BEHAVIOR in the "genetic memory" of dogs, and some will do it automatically without any training ... I believe it has to do with hunting as a group and also the Retrieval of buried Food

What a wonderful explanation! And what a wonderful Akita!!!!! I know how it is searching for glasses without having glasses. I cannot do this with Socks, because she has to live outside and I put my glasses headlessly somewhere inside the house. But I'm sure she would catch this quickly.

To say Bonzos name only mentally and he reacts is absolutely incrivel! I can shout and my husband won't hear it, although his ears are very good for his age!!! But actually this is not a dog chapter.

Socks is "just" a Pit, but she too reacts when I'm pointing on a certain spot or - as I said - only staring at it. I am convinced that humans underestimated these animals dreadfully.
By the way - I googled for your book you're reading at the moment. Sounds fascinating. I will order it too.

In my opinion the science about dogs and other animals is not advanced enough to explain certain incredible facts.

So trust your talented creatures and misplace your glasses wherever it happens, you certainly don't need a new ophtamologist, on the contrary he should consider to purchase and train a dog or dogs to help his patients and perhaps himself. Maybe he'd then see and hear better, but find buried food - I doubt!

 Quote: Christina Stockinger

Socks is "just" a Pit, but she too reacts when I'm pointing on a certain spot or - as I said - only staring at it...

I am convinced that humans underestimated these animals dreadfully...

By the way - I googled for your book you're reading at the moment. Sounds fascinating. I will order it too...

In my opinion the science about dogs and other animals is not advanced enough to explain certain incredible facts.

Yes, there's no such thing as "just" a dog, no matter its breeding

Canids take an interest in almost anything that becomes the focus of their counterpart's attention -- They pretty much "home in on" and go after everything the other is eating, is holding, is throwing, is chasing, is threatening, is attacking, is dragging, is stashing, is digging up, is resting on, is watching, is pointing at, is moving toward, is looking for (to a greater or lesser degree, depending on the individual dog & the specific object) ... IMHO, the human understanding of all animals is rudimentary at best & wrong-headed at worst (!) You will LOVE reading, "Your Dog Is Your Mirror", even if you don't fully buy into every single premise presented by Kevin Behan

Dogs can most certainly follow a "look". EG, if I walk toward a window and look out, my dog will come over, put his feet on the window sill, and look out too.

You were obviously delighted when your dog brought the keys. Her reward is your delight.

Something they learn by "accident" seems to stick better, often, than the things we try to teach them!

It's been shown that dogws are the ONLY animal that picks up on what we look at or point to.

It's been tried with wolves, and even chimps but none seem to "get it".

The explanation is that it's one of those things that have developed with no defined effort as dogs evolved from their ancestors.

Sort of like the 1950s Russian experiment to breed for a more docile fox in order to make them easier to handle for the fur trade.

Changes that came about along with the foxes being more docile were spotted/piebald colors, floppy ears, curled tails and other changes that came about on their own.

Think what happens when a dogs looks are the primary breeding goal.

Hi Bob, hi Betty. I agree fully.

The ones, who are loose, always follow me, when I wander through the garden. Or when I'm digging, planting etc. they always watch, as if it were the most interesting activity.
That dogs are the only animals, who understand when we are staring or pointing at something, I didn't know. What creatures!

That they learn better by capturing the moment I've been told by Mark Keating. And it has really proven to be a fact. I could experience this already with various exercises like touching a pad, handtouch, look target, playbow and others.

Another pertinent note: if you are focusing on something that you do not want your dog to focus on, you will have a much harder time getting their attention away from it. This was pointed out to me by accident a few months ago and I have found much better success in getting my dogs to move on from a staring contest with stray dogs or people walking near us if I ignore them myself - if I stare at the thing I am worried about, they understand that I am staring at it and that it worries me, and that in turn will make them worried, even if I tell them to ignore it.

 Quote: Kristin Muntz

Another pertinent note: if you are focusing on something that you do not want your dog to focus on, you will have a much harder time getting their attention away from it. This was pointed out to me by accident a few months ago and I have found much better success in getting my dogs to move on from a staring contest with stray dogs or people walking near us if I ignore them myself - if I stare at the thing I am worried about, they understand that I am staring at it and that it worries me, and that in turn will make them worried, even if I tell them to ignore it.

Yep, "telegraphing my own emotional upset DOWN-LEAD for the dog to internalize itself" has always been difficult for me to curtail in circumstances such as you describe above...

I try to be like a cop saying, "Move along, nothing to see here...", but my dog picks up a mixed message from me (between the "act" I put on for its sake & how I am truly FEELING)

One "band-aid" though, that at least fixes the symptom (alas, without eliminating its cause, however) is having my restraint-reactive female Dobie wear her Barkless Collar while riding in the car & walking on-lead ... Since she would VOCALIZE her defensive aggression in such scenarios, that is an option Adobe now voluntarily foregoes, choosing instead her own self-imposed AVOIDANCE with the ecollar set on "tap-tone" only With NO Stim -- Even as an admittedly stop-gap solution, this still works sufficiently for me

I saw it when I was in SAR. to many handlers unconsciously make the dog focus to much attention on them instead of the training article.

That's to easily created if the handler knows where the training article is and unconsciously spends to much time looking where the training article is instead of letting the dog use it's nose to find it.

The dogs are reading the handler and using it as a crutch.